THAILAND is planning a massive marketing campaign using 26 global and regional influencers to promote the country's reopening and attract more foreign tourists.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is spearheading the campaign which also includes plans to engage Thai-British Formula One driver Alex Albon.
Named "Amazing New Chapters: From A-to-Z Thailand has it all", the marketing campaign will focus on influencers with huge number of followers, to represent the many tourism products that Thailand wants to promote during its critical recovery period next year, said TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn.
According to a Bangkok Post report, he said the campaign will be launched at ITB Berlin, a virtual international travel trade show, in March 2022 with 26 influencers from different fields who have more than 1 million followers on their social networks.
TAT's goal for the project is to reach at least 26 million people globally.
Yuthasak said TAT has tasked all of its overseas offices to recruit potential candidates for the project.
Part of the gimmick is the 26 influencers will be selected based on the 26 letters in the Roman alphabet, he added.
"I personally spoke to Alex Albon about becoming a tourism ambassador for Thailand. He's a prominent figure who could represent the letter A and help us target motor racing fans globally as sports tourism is one of our key quality markets next year," he said.
Albon was with Red Bull Racing team during the 2021 Formula One season, but in 2022 he will drive for the British team Williams, alongside Nicholas Lafiti.
He has about 1.3 million followers on Instagram and around 427,000 Twitter followers, as well as 325,000 followers on Facebook.
Yuthasak said a big global campaign was necessary as the country was enthusiastic to show that it was ready to welcome foreign tourists and the new national approach will focus on tourist experiences rather than the sheer volume of visitors.
To achieve its target, TAT has set three performance indicators for next year – a nationwide average occupancy for hotels reaching 50 per cent, up from 25 to 30 per cent this year; the average cabin factor for airplanes reaching 70 per cent; and international and domestic expenditure per person reaching at least 62,580 baht and 4,100 baht, respectively.
Thailand hopes to receive between eight and 15 million foreign tourists next year and up to 20 million visitors in 2023.
Prior to the pandemic, its tourist arrivals were on a steady rise with almost 40 million people visiting Thailand in 2019.
In addition to the A-to-Z project, TAT also plans to introduce the first phase of its metaverse offering next year with virtual tours of durian farms.
A number of famous fruit farms in eastern Thailand have agreed to join the project by featuring their farms and produce in the virtual world, Yuthasak said.